Leura Cascades, Three Sisters, Leura Forest Circuit

Location: Blue Mountains National Park, NSW
Date: 2nd January, 2014
Distance: 6.8 km
Time: 3 h 30 min

This walk starts off at the Leura Cascades picnic area and follows the cliff top to the three sisters, descends a steep staircase to the forest floor and returns via Leura forest. The two halves of this circuit, first atop the cliffs and then underneath the forest canopy, contrast spectacularly in terms of scenery. Unfortunately there were seemingly endless lines of tourists in the first half, so we barely had a moment to ourselves and didn't feel the desire to take any photos. Many people seemed intent on reaching their destination (the sisters) rather than enjoying the walk itself, which is a shame because the views are great.

At the three sisters themselves, we found ourselves inexplicably caught in a human traffic jam. Aside from taking photos of the three sisters from every conceivable angle with every possible combination of group members in it, the standard tourist schedule appears to involve 'defeating' the Giant Stairway, 800-plus steps built into the cliff face. We only planned to go one way (down), and after seeing some people crawling along the ground and near to hurling after their ascent, I could hardly find any appeal to try the other way.

In fact, after leaving the Giant Stairway, we had the entire forest to ourselves, except for two quiet girls going the same way as us that we saw a couple of times. Turning left onto Dardanelles Pass, we walked back in the direction of Leura Falls beneath the cliff through lovely rainforest similar to Lamington NP in south east QLD. That such a small number of people, out of the thousands that flock to destroy themselves on the Giant Stairway, should bother to visit Leura forest is utterly perplexing.

Emily challenging a large tree branch

After descending for about a km, we reached a large picnic area near the Banksia Streamlet. There was also an enormous, moss-covered pyramid-shaped rock that looked like it would be fun to climb. It was a good spot for a break.

Our break spot

The remaining part of the walk was steep uphill, through the most spectacular scenery we encountered in the Blue Mountains. Why this beautiful rainforest is neglected in favour of the ugly, crowded Stairway at the three sisters is beyond me.

Marguerite Cascades

Lila Falls

Old vs new

Emily can't wait to climb the stairway of doom 

More elvish pathways

If I came here again, I would probably skip the clifftop walk and try the Dardanelles Pass Circuit instead, which sticks to the Leura forest area and avoid the crowds at the three sisters.